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Salem Witchcraft and Lessons for Contemporary Forensic Psychiatry

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Salem Witchcraft and Lessons for Contemporary Forensic Psychiatry ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY Salem Witchcraft and Lessons for Contemporary Forensic Psychiatry Susan Hatters Friedman, MD, and Andrew Howie, MB, ChB, BD In 1692 and 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts, more than 150 colonists were accused of witchcraft, resulting in 19 being hanged and one man being crushed to death. Contributions to these events included: historical, religious and cultural belief systems; social and community concerns; economic, gender, and political factors; and local family grievances. Child witnessing, certainty of physician diagnosis, use of special evidence in the absence of scholarly and legal scrutiny, and tautological reasoning were important factors, as well. For forensic psychiatry, the events at Salem in 1692 still hold contemporary implications. These events of three centuries ago call to mind more recent daycare sexual abuse scandals. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 41:294–99, 2013 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.—Exodus 22:181 Setting the Context: Time and Place The supernatural has long fascinated the public and Attempts to understand Salem require that we psychiatrists alike. Throughout history, otherwise shed our 21st century worldview and imagine the impossible-to-explain evils have been attributed to context of 1692 Salem. Religious, social, gender, lo- supernatural actors, such as werewolves, vampires, cal, political, and economic factors were salient.3–5 and witches. As recognition and understanding of God and the Devil were in daily contact with the mental illness, sadism, and sociopathy have in- colonists.5,6 The Puritan church was the center of the creased, otherworldly explanations for phenomena community, spiritually and politically. “Puritans have similarly evolved. viewed the world. .with the forces of evil engaged in Belief in possession occurs in cultures that legiti- mate the role of the Devil and see evidence of diabol- an unceasing battle for the souls of the Lord’s le- ical intervention in day-to-day events. In Biblical de- gions” (Ref. 7, p 11). Separation of fantasy from reality was quite different from today,8 and a belief in scriptions, Jesus Christ exorcised possession states 3 that presented similarly to psychosis, epilepsy, and witchcraft was part of the culture. We must use caution not to proceed with a self-congratulatory dissociation. Historically, women and those of lower 9 status are most likely to be considered possessed.2 stance regarding the current state of psychiatry. It is There remain cultures and subcultures that believe in necessary to focus on explanatory models available at possession, both in developing and developed na- that time in history rather than merely regarding the tions. In Pentecostal sects, two types of possession are phenomenon as a conversion reaction.10 distinguished: that flowing from the Holy Spirit and Malleus Maleficarum (translated to The Hammer approved of by society and that of diabolical origin, of Witches11), the witch-hunting manual written by which requires exorcism.2 Catholic Inquisitors, was used for almost two centu- ries after 1486.3 It described witchcraft as born of the Dr. Hatters Friedman is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediat- carnal lust of women who were insatiable by normal rics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, 12 OH. Dr. Howie is Clinical Director, Mental Health and Drug and means. Witches were tempted by and, yielding, Alcohol Services, Far West Local Health District, Broken Hill Base entered a covenant with the Devil by signing the Hospital, Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Presented at the 4,13 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ Annual Devil’s Book. Witchcraft was therefore a crime Forensic Section Meeting in Melbourne, Australia, November 13, against God.12 Since there were no witnesses to these 2009. Address correspondence to: Susan Hatters Friedman, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 11100 Euclid Ave- pacts, torture was permissible in these investigations nue, Cleveland, OH 44106. E-mail: [email protected]. to gain information that might otherwise be Disclosures of financial or other potential conflicts of interest: None. withheld. 294 The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Friedman and Howie The 17th century was a time of witch hunts and Rather than being reprimanded, the girls were pit- trials in Europe. In the Barragan witchcraft trials in ied and placed on center stage.6 Spanos notes, “To Scotland (1697), for example, an 11-year-old named become demonically afflicted was to adopt a social her tormentors after experiencing what appeared to role that contained fairly clear-cut expectations con- be violent seizures, losing the power of speech, and cerning the subjective experiences and behaviors re- seeing the devil in human form. Bleedings and med- quired” (Ref. 8, p 364). Symptoms spread rapidly ications had no effect. Medical evidence was pre- among girls,16 beginning diversely but becoming in- sented, leading to seven persons accused being put to creasingly consistent across victims. In fact, being 14 death. possessed oneself was the only ironclad way to pre- From 1630 to 1700 in colonial New England, in vent accusations of witchcraft. 4 total, 234 individuals were accused of witchcraft. Fasting and prayer were not effective treatments. Salem was unique, however, because the largest witch The plan to bake a witch cake of urine from the panic in the colonies occurred there, even as the afflicted girls had unintended consequences. Rever- witch trials in mother England were on the decline. end Parris called in the local physician, Dr. William As women were believed to be uncontrollably lust- Griggs. Dr. Griggs ruled out epilepsy in the writhing ful creatures and children were to be seen and not agitated victims; medications were ineffective.3,5 heard, girls were relegated the lowest social status. Ergo, since illness had either natural or supernatural Salem Village, less sophisticated than Salem Town, causes,4 it was certain that the Devil and witchcraft was divided by land disputes, family rivalries, and the were causal. The girls were declared under an “evil turmoil surrounding the development of a separate hand.”3,7,16 Girls “who suffered from witchcraft, af- village church and ministerial choice. The larger pic- ter all, were the victims of a crime, not a disease” (Ref. ture also included life in a new country on a frontier, 16, p 2). (In 1695, Dr. Griggs would resurface in attacks by nearby Indians, and an unstable relation- ship with England that could cause land titles to be another forensic matter, an early testamentary capac- ity case, to testify that Mary Putnam was not of invalidated by the Crown. Natural disasters trans- 16 pired: crops failed and livestock, women, and infants sound mind when she drew up her will. ) Intense questioning of the girls15 resulted in an became diseased and died, all explained by God’s 11 will, specifically as punishment for sins.3,4,6,15 In- accusation of witchcraft against three local women. crease Mather, a prominent Puritan minister, attrib- They were among the usual suspects: poor, a slave, uted King Phillip’s War, smallpox, earthquakes, and and a woman rumored to be involved with a servant. a Boston fire to “divine displeasure for spiritual Tituba, Parris’s Caribbean slave, was accused and decline.”13 under duress named others as witches. Others who were soon accused were either not pious or were dis- liked by the community.17 Accusations grew to in- A Brief Review of Salem and Its clude not only the usual suspects, but rather promi- Witchcraft Trials nent community members as well. “The tales of In winter 1691, 11-year-old Abigail Williams, affliction spun. .gave these young women access to niece of the Reverend Parris, began experiencing public power they had never known” (Ref. 6, p 137). symptoms of bewitchment, as did Betty Parris, his To challenge the veracity of the girls’ symptoms di- 9-year-old daughter.3,7 Soon thereafter, other girls rectly would lead to suspicion of one’s own motives. ages 9 to 17 and a woman, began experiencing symp- Indeed, Martha Corey drew attention to herself by toms, including feeling as if they were being pricked, showing scepticism about the accusations and was pinched, burned, or bitten; making odd contortions; accused and hanged. doing animal imitations; and physically and verbally The clergy had defined what physical signs indi- abusing others.4,5 Sermons were interrupted by sac- cated witchcraft, and physicians and midwives were rilegious outbursts; Bibles were flung across the directed to find them.16 A physician would deter- room. The afflicted also reported having a second mine if a disease was natural or unnatural and make a sight, seeing specters (defined as shapes of witches), diagnosis of witchcraft. “Devil’s marks” were flat or who would torment them and perpetrate evil acts raised red, blue, or brown lesions with unusual outlines, against them.4 marks identified as the Devil’s confirmation of the Volume 41, Number 2, 2013 295 Salem Witchcraft and Lessons for Forensic Psychiatry pact.3,18 Witch’s marks were supernumerary nipples (or spent in church, many failed this test. Yet former sores) that the devil’s agents would suckle.3,4,18 Salem pastor George Burroughs recited it flawlessly Colonists faced charges of murder and spreading from the scaffold. The afflicted then claimed they disease, as well as assaultive speech.3,4 Blasphemy, in saw a black man (the Devil) nearby, dictating the theory, was a capital crime.4 The Court of Oyer and words.3 Burroughs was still executed; he had been Terminer was convened in early 1692, specifically to convicted in court, and Reverend Mather also spoke handle the witch trials.3,7 Trials were interrupted by in favor of execution.6,16,19 spasms en masse.
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